'The View' co-host Sunny Hostin says 4th graders shouldn't be taught sex ed: 'I think it's too young'
The View co-host Sunny Hostin loves to school viewers on the law. But when it comes to sex education, maybe don’t look to the former federal prosecutor for guidance.
During Friday’s “Hot Topics” segment, Hostin revealed that her kids’s school starts sex education in the 4th grade, and that she feels children that age are “too young” to be learning about the birds and the bees. “I’ll bet my kids know more about sex than I know,” she added.
Fellow panelist Joy Behar clapped back at Hostin. “Fourth grade is not too young. The argument is from mostly a lot on the extreme right, and mostly probably religious people, is that if you give them information they’ll do it. That’s why they don’t want sex education,” she argued.
Hostin stood her ground, and took things a step further, asking “Why are people having sex at 18? You don’t even know yourself.” Behar scoffed at the notion that you have to “know yourself” before having sex, joking, “I would would have wait after 25 years of therapy.”
The View quickly turned to “the talk” (as in talking to your kids about sex, not the CBS version of The View), with Abby Huntsman recalling a conversation she had with her mother as a child. “She picked me up from school, I think I was in 5th or 6th grade, she took me to get an ice cream cone of all things ... and she started with the birds and the bees.”
Hostin then revealed she never had “the talk” with her mother. “My mother gave me a book called Lifecycle Series,” she said.
Meghan McCain’s family took another route all-together: “My parents, shocker, did not have a sex talk with me. I come from a very WASPY family.” She added that she learned about sex “in a locker room in middle school.”
Many Twitter users objected to Hostin’s position on early sex education:
@TheView, yes to Megan and how she hopes she would approach the sex talk. @sunny , if you don’t get involved and teach them about their own bodies, you are setting them up for heartbreak and diseases. For a woman who fights for herself, start arming your kids.
— Sue Ramge (@RamgeSue) May 3, 2019
4th grade isnt too young for sex ed. Kids need to be educated about sex as well as sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.
I’m sorry , but everyone didn’t start having sex in high school or college. Where I’m from it started in 6th grade and 8th was the deadline #TheView— Cameron Green (@CaMeRoNGrEeN29) May 3, 2019
18 year olds do not need their mother’s approval to have sex. All the ladies on the view had problems talking about sex and their children. Even the ladies that don’t have kids. Meghan was the only one that was real with how most kids are educated about sex, from the streets💥
— LadyDay711 (@LadyDay711) May 3, 2019
Sunny please be quiet I can go fight for my country at 18 I can have sex#theview
— Keith Taylor (@Tumboz18) May 3, 2019
Sunny in thinking 18 is too young for sex. 😳
— Barb (@MidwestArea) May 3, 2019
While others did support Hostin’s view that 4th graders shouldn’t be getting “the talk” from their teachers:
I totally agree with @sunny that 4th grade is too young to talk about sex, and 18 is still too young to be doing it bc you really don't realize the emotional consequences, and pregnancy, STDs or AIDS #TheView
— The Speakers Corner (@rock_the_word) May 3, 2019
@sunny My daughter is also enrolled in a very progressive school system here in Jersey. They introduced the topic of sex in her 6th grade health class this year. Both my husband and I thought it a little young for a stranger to start “the conversation” with my newly 12 year old.
— Lauren M Jones (@1laurenmj) May 3, 2019
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